Points, Planes and Passports

A Weekend in Southeast Asia: Introduction

BySean May 11, 2015May 15, 2015

Last December, there was an interesting airfare to Singapore from Toronto with American Airlines. The base fare was low enough to grab my attention, as it included the newish, long segments from Dallas / Ft. Worth (DFW) to Hong Kong on the new B777-300ER. I had several newly acquired American eVIP, system wide upgrades burning a hole…

United B787-9 International Routes Announced

BySean May 10, 2015May 10, 2015

It seems that Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) will become a haven for the new B787-9 Dreamliners! United has revealed that a number of its new, B787-9s will be deployed to Houston to takeover existing routes currently flown by other equipment. The transition to the United B787-9 begins in the fall: Airlineroute.net reports the…

Death of the Mistake Fare

BySean May 10, 2015May 10, 2015

The United States Department of Transportation quietly announced a ruling Friday that in essence kills the “mistake fare” as we know it. The full. three-page document can be viewed here: New DOT Enforcement Policy Regarding Mistaken Fares. In April of 2011, the Department of Transportation issued a very consumer-frienly policy that prohibits airlines from increasing…

Review: United Business First Dubai to Washington

BySean May 4, 2015January 1, 2024

After spending an enjoyable three days in Dubai, we arrived at Dubai International Airport where we went through check-in, immigration and security without a hitch. We had about an hour or so to kill before we needed to go to the gate for another round of security, so we headed to the Lufthansa Senator Lounge…

Three Days in Dubai – Ten Highlights

BySean March 27, 2015January 1, 2024

We arrived in Dubai at the interesting hour of around 8pm and quickly disembarked from my somewhat disappointing flight in United Business First from Washington-Dulles. We were given express passes for immigration, but this didn’t seem to matter much. The walk from the gate to immigration is pretty substantial, and by the time we reached…

American AAdvantage and US Airways Dividend Miles Combine – What it means to you

BySean March 25, 2015March 25, 2015

On Tuesday, American Airlines announced that it would combine the legacy loyalty programs of American Airlines and US Airways on this coming Saturday, March 28. Previously, American had stated that these two programs would be merging sometime in the second quarter 0f 2015, so this puts them a little ahead of schedule. The newly combined…

Review: United Business First Washington to Dubai

BySean March 13, 2015January 1, 2024

A good friend of mine and former roommate moved to Dubai from Washington a few years back, but I’d yet to successfully visit him out in the desert. Two years ago, I tried to meet up with him while on a trip to Dubai, but engine problems on the Dreamliner and the resulting 24-hour delay…

My Last Hurrah as a United Premier 1K: A Weekend in Dubai

BySean March 11, 2015May 4, 2015

With my United Premier 1K status set to end at the end of January 2015, I wanted to make the most of it before it expired. That meant I had some Global Premier Upgrades to burn! United 1K members receive six Global Premier Upgrades (and two regional premier upgrades) that are good for an upgrade from economy…

Review: LAN Economy Class Santiago to Sao Paulo on the B787

BySean January 30, 2015January 1, 2024

I was scheduled to have about an hour and twenty minutes on the ground in Santiago between my incoming flight from New York-JFK and my connecting flight to Sao Paulo. After a quick trip to freshen up in the LAN Mistral VIP Salon, I made my way to the gate, passing Dreamliner after Dreamliner. Santiago…

Review: LAN Economy Class New York – JFK to Santiago on the B787

BySean January 29, 2015January 1, 2024

I recently attempted a weekend trip to Iguazu Falls, Argentina and failed miserably. So many things went wrong that ultimately led me to ditching the itinerary in Sao Paulo and returning to New York. But what let up to that point? A comedy of errors on this itinerary resulted in me getting pretty much no…